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Serving the Soldiers, Civilians and Families of 2nd BCT, 4th Inf. Div.

Soldiers making Camp Nathan Smith their own

Story and photos by Sgt. Ruth Pagan2nd Brigade Combat Team, PAO

Coming to a new place and making it feel like home can be difficult but it is essen-tial for Soldiers.

Soldiers from Headquarters and Head-quarters Troop, 2nd Special Troops Battalion,

1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, and some elements of 204th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th In-fantry Division have arrived on Camp Nathan Smith ready to make it their own.

Work has already begun to improve CNS, said Sgt. 1st Class Marvin Willis, the deputy mayor of Camp Nathan Smith with Head-quarters and Headquarters Company, 204th BSB.

Some of the things being worked on are the Post Exchange, Moral, Welfare and Recre-ation, and the aid station.

“ The PX is going to be expanded and [Army and Air Force Exchange Service] has agreed to get us more products. We are planning to build a bigger MWR and we are getting Xboxes and TVs from the [United Service Organizations],” said Willis.

The aid station is building partitions for patients to give them more privacy and pro-tection, said Sgt. Carlos Sesena, noncommis-sioned officer in charge of the aid station with Company C, 204th BSB

“We want to offer patients the same kind of

care they would get in the states,” Sesena said.Making improvements to a place isn’t the

only way to make it feel like home. It is also about the company one has.

“CNS is a smaller camp so it’s more per-sonal and everyone looks out for one another here; it’s more family oriented,” said Sgt. 1st Class Earl Schaffer, human resources NCOIC for 1st Sqdn., 10th Cav. Reg.

Soldiers utilize the phone and internet stations in the Morale, Welfare and Recreation area at Camp Nathan Smith, June 14. A new MWR is being built and will have TVs and gaming systems for soldiers to use.

Staff Sgt. Marcus Reid, a combat medic with the Personal Security Detachment, 204th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Divi-sion treated an Afghan boy injured in an explosion June 10. “It means a lot to me that I am able to affect the community through my skills as a combat medic,” Reid said. Soldiers in Reid’s unit came across the injured boy while they were conducting a routine reconnaissance and surveillance patrol around Forward Operating Base Walton. As the patrol approached a group of children, the Rough Rider soldiers no-ticed one of the children had a severely in-fected gash on his forehead. With permis-sion from his father, Reid cleaned, applied antibiotics and dressed the wound.

While the boy was being treated, Staff Sgt. Terry Elekes and Staff Sgt. Bryan Cook, FOB Walton’s base defense non-commissioned offi-cers in charge, asked the boy’s father about his injuries. According to his father, there was an explosion that hurled debris, struck the boy in

the face and left him injured. The man was vague about where the explosion occurred, but he did provide some information about the area. The soldiers gave bandages and water to the boy’s father to ensure the wound would be treated properly, and he thanked them before they returned to FOB Walton. “It is constantly enforced in our unit that what we choose to do today affects what the Afghan citizens do tomorrow,” Reid said.

Issue 60 July 1, 2011

Rough Riders render aid to Afghan blast victim

Soldiers can utilize the gym at Camp Nathan Smith day or night, 24 hours a day. The gym has an indoor run-ning track so that soldiers can still run even when the outside temperatures do not permit.

Story and photos by 1st Lt. Bradlee Spudic204th Brigade Support Battalion

Staff Sgt. Marcus Reid, a combat medic with the Personal Security Detachment, 204th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division cleans and dresses an infected wound of a local boy while on patrol in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, June 10.

Warhorse PridePage 2 Issue 60 July 1, 2011

The Warhorse Pride is produced in the interest of the Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. The Warhorse Pide is an Army-funded news-letter authorized under provision of AR 360-1. Contents of the Warhorse Pride are not necessarily the view of, nor endorsed by the U.S. government, Department of Defense, Department of the Army or the 4th Infantry Division. All editorial content of The Warhorse Pride is prepared, edited, provided and approved by the 2nd Brigade Combat Team Public

Affairs Office. The Warhorse Pride welcomes articles, commentary and photos from readers. The Warhorse Pride reserves the right to edit submissions selected for the publication. All issues of The Warhorse Pride can be viewed online from your home computer at www.facebook.com/2bct4id Submissions should be e-mailed to the editor:seth.barham@afghan.swa.army.mil

Col. John S. Kolasheski...................2nd BCT CommanderCommand Sgt. Maj. Ralph Delosa..............2nd BCT CSMMaj. Kevin Toner................................................2nd BCT PAOSgt. Seth Barham..................................................PAO NCOICSgt. Ruth Pagan......................................Layout and DesignSpc. April York.........................................Layout and Design

Warhorse Pride

Soccer brings soldiers, Afghans togetherStory and photos by Capt. Austin Luher204th Brigade Support Battalion

Soldiers from Company A, 204th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, got their first chance to interact with the local community on a recent combat logistics patrol to several combat outposts in the Arghandab River Valley.

While delivering supplies to 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment at Combat Outpost Durham, Soldiers from Company A met some local Afghanistan children who were helping their parents clear trash from the outpost.

This was the first time in three weeks that Assassin company soldiers could interact

with the community during a logistical mission.

One of the local children had brought a soccer ball with them into the outpost and the soldiers decided to play a pickup game with them.

“This was fun,” said Spc. William Leatherbury, member of the convoy escort team. “I hope that we can do more things like this in the future.”

“It’s the little things, like this soccer game, that will go a long way in helping improve relations and ultimately the safety of U.S. Soldiers and people of Afghanistan,” said Staff Sgt. Christopher Hanna, escort platoon sergeant. “I just hope that we can do things like this again in the near future.”

Soldiers from Company A, 204th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, pose for a group photo with Afghan children after their impromptu soccer game at Combat Outpost Durham, June 20. The soldiers were at COP Durham in order to provide supplies to another 2nd BCT unit living at the COP.

KPRT helps Afghans strengthen Afghanistan

Projects are in the works to help local Afghans stabilize their country and strengthen their government through the efforts of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team. The KPRT consists of both military and civilian personnel working together to empower the local government through the people.

“We try to increase the opportunities that the Afghans have,” said Aditya Raval, a public diplomacy field officer working for the KPRT.

Working closely with public diplomacy is a big part of the job, Raval said.

“We are training the Afghans to farm for themselves,” Raval said. “We are building canals with our Afghan brothers and sisters so they can have a sustainable agricultural base here.”

Another sustainable project in the works is the Regional Afghan Municipalities Program for Urban Populations. RAMP UP has three phases: capacity building, service delivery and revenue generation.

Capacity building entails training a large enough municipality staff where advisers are no longer needed. Service delivery involves

working with the city to design and create projects that deliver critical services such as waste management, household registration and public sanitation. The final phase is the generation of revenue where the inhabitants are charged for services and pay taxes to keep the city going; therefore making the city self sustainable.

Culverts are being built to help water drainage during the rainy season, schools are being upgraded to increase capacity, sidewalks are being repaired, the quality of ditches and roads are being improved, wells and clinics are being built to improve the overall health of Afghans in the city, and bridges are being built to improve transportation routes.

Raval and his teammates work closely with the Kandahar Governor’s Office to ensure they are spreading the good word about projects under construction, he said.

Raval said. “It’s about working with your teammates – Afghan, military and other coalition countries to try and push forward some momentum that we’ve built upon in the past few months in hopes that the progress we are building here is sustainable and the end result is the Afghans will be able to stand on their own after 2014.”

Story by Spc. April York2nd Brigade Combat Team, PAO

Command Sgt. Maj. Ralph Delosa, command sergeant major for 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division presents a Warhorse coin to Sgt. Vincent Davis, a cavalry scout with Headquar-ters and Headquarters Troop, 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, at the Warrior Transition Unit, June 29. Delosa traveled to the WTU to thank soldiers, who have been injured in the line of duty, for their service.

Brig. Gen. Poh Zarifi, the commander of the Re-gional Training Center of Kandahar salutes one of the graduates of a train the trainer course during a ceremony at the Police Training Academy at Camp Nathan Smith, June 30. The five week long course produced 16 graduates who are now able to go back to their regional training centers and instruct fellow police officers